WASHINGTON, Feb 5, 2013 (AFP) – U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday they have no plans to press charges against Lance Armstrong, despite his confession that he owes his Tour de France victories to illegal doping.

U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte, who led a federal investigation into the disgraced rider, did not definitively rule out action, but said Armstrong's public admission had not yet led him to reverse his decision to drop the case.

"We made a decision on that case, I believe, a little over a year ago," he said, when asked about the status of the federal inquiry into long-standing claims that Armstrong had run a doping program and had lied to federal agents.

"Obviously we've been well aware of the statements that have been made by Mr. Armstrong and other media reports," he said, referring to Armstrong's bombshell confession on Oprah Winfrey's broadcast last month.

"That has not changed my view at this time. Obviously we'll consider—we'll continue to look at the situation, but that hasn't changed our view as I stand here today," Birotte said at a news conference in Washington.

The 41-year-old Texan was stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles last year after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency gathered compelling testimony that he had been the ringleader of a large-scale doping conspiracy.

For years he had angrily protested his innocence, even when he was questioned by U.S. federal agents investigating the allegations. But the pattern of deceit came to an end last month when he confessed his guilt to Winfrey.

The confession threw open a number of legal questions, including whether the federal probe might be re-opened, whether he might be prosecuted for perjury, and whether sponsors might sue to recover former payments and prize money.